Upon seeing Anle arrive, Princess Jincheng, who had been sitting close beside Li Shu on the daybed, hastily rose to her feet and greeted her with great care. “My… respects to Princess Anle.”

Jincheng hesitated before that last word and did not dare call her “Elder Sister.”

Not a single princess born of concubines in the rear palace was unafraid of Anle. She was extraordinarily favored and did entirely as she pleased — one moment of displeasure was all it took for her to make a person’s life miserable. At the Crown Princess’s birthday banquet back in the third month, Anle had raked Jincheng over the coals, and Jincheng’s heart still seized up at the memory.

Anle paid not the slightest attention to Jincheng cowering at her side like a quail. She settled herself on the daybed and sat facing Li Shu across the low table between them. She looked Li Shu over: both hands were loosely wound in bandages, the crisscrossing of wound marks just barely visible, tucked under the broad sleeves.

She had heard from the imperial physician that Li Shu’s hands had very nearly been ruined beyond recovery.

At the sight of this, Anle asked the first question she had spoken all day, her voice coming out somewhat subdued. “Are you all right?”

The tone was a little grudging, but it was, at least, an expression of concern — and so Li Shu’s brow lifted a fraction. She had rather expected Anle to come looking for a quarrel. “Much better now,” she replied.

One question, one answer — and the two of them had nothing more to say to each other. An awkward silence spread swiftly through the room.

The noble ladies seated below exchanged glances, wondering to themselves whether this was the calm before the storm.

In truth, Anle had no wish to stir up any storm. She simply wanted to ask Li Shu about the divorce. But the room was full of people, and that was not the sort of thing one could ask in company. So she sat there straining for something to say and could not squeeze out a single word.

Li Shu, taciturn by nature and hampered besides by the pain in her hands, had even less inclination to open her mouth.

Seeing the atmosphere grow so strained, Jincheng wavered for a moment, then took it upon herself to break the silence. She asked Li Shu, “Does the wound on Elder Sister’s hand still pain her?”

“Much better than before,” Li Shu replied.

As she spoke, her hand shifted slightly — she had instinctively wanted to scratch, and in doing so had grazed the wound. The pain made her brow crease.

Seeing this, Jincheng quickly gestured to her attendant to bring out a gift she had prepared. “I made a small thing to give to Elder Sister.”

Li Shu stared at what the maidservant held out, puzzled. “Gloves?”

Jincheng hastened to explain. “Elder Sister’s injury is on her hands. I thought that when wounds are healing, the itching and pain can be so unbearable that one cannot help but scratch. So I made these gloves especially, to protect the wound.”

The gloves were fashioned from thin, fine silk — even worn on the hands they would not be stifling in the heat. The ten fingertips were left open, which would not impede ordinary movement at all. The surface of the silk had been carefully embroidered with several tiny, half-opened plum buds.

Li Shu was quite taken with the gift. It was exactly what she needed. She had Hong Luo help her put them on, and she turned her hands back and forth to look them over with a smile. “You really are thoughtful.”

Giving gifts was something anyone could do. What was rare was giving a gift that struck right to the heart of the need.

Though young Princess Jincheng was perhaps a little timid and meek, she did have a perceptive understanding of others. She had only just come of age, and was at the age when she would be making appearances in aristocratic circles and looking for a husband consort. Whoever eventually married her would surely find his household managed with quiet competence.

Jincheng pressed her lips together and smiled softly. “So long as Elder Sister likes it.”

She had received guidance from Li Shu some time ago, and afterward, following the four words — “silent and circumspect” — in everything she did, she had indeed managed to give offense to no one. In fact, after attending a number of banquets, people had gradually begun to praise her for her genteel and virtuous conduct. She was deeply grateful to Li Shu.

The gift gave everyone something to talk about, and the atmosphere brightened at last. Several of the noble ladies laughed and joined in, praising Jincheng’s “exquisite needlework,” and the chill that Anle’s arrival had cast over the room was smoothed away.

Or so it seemed — until: “What is there to make such a fuss over? It is only a pair of gloves.”

Anle suddenly let out a cold snort. The atmosphere died all at once.

Jincheng had only just been smiling. Anle’s words were like a whip soaked in ice water — they lashed right through her and left her chilled to the bone. Her face went through a rapid series of red and white, and she wished she could sink into the floor.

Had she said something wrong again?

Anle did not care in the slightest what Jincheng thought. She turned her gaze to Li Shu, her almond eyes bright with impatience. “It is stifling in here. Let us go outside for a walk.”

She had come today to ask about the divorce. But those others had done nothing but chatter and ramble about nothing, and she had had no opening to speak. Her patience had run entirely dry.

Jincheng had said nothing wrong. She had simply had the ill fortune of crossing Anle’s path at the precise moment of her exasperation and caught the brunt of it.

It was Hong Luo who was sharp-witted enough to smooth things over. She smiled from the side. “Princess Anle is quite right. The sky is overcast today but the rain has not yet come, and it is very cool and pleasant outside. A little stroll in the fresh air would do everyone good.”

Several of the noble ladies eagerly agreed. “Quite so, quite so. Your Highness’s garden is so beautifully kept — we have long wished for an opportunity to admire it.”

A maidservant draped a cape over Li Shu’s shoulders. Li Shu gave Hong Luo her instructions. “Princess Jincheng and Princess Yongtai are visiting my mansion for the first time. Do not neglect them — take them all around and let them enjoy themselves for a good while before returning to the palace.”

This was a way of restoring Jincheng’s dignity.

Li Shu had no great sisterly affection for Jincheng, but those gloves had been a thoughtful gift, and Anle’s outburst had been entirely unprovoked.

Li Shu knew herself to be a cold and unsociable creature, not one for easy interaction — but compared to Anle, she was practically the most consummate diplomat in the realm.

*

The two of them left the main rooms and walked aimlessly along the covered corridor, their maidservants following at a respectful distance behind.

Their footsteps echoed on the walkway and made the silence between them feel even more pronounced. Anle was not one for pleasantries or roundabout speech. She got straight to the point. “Why did you divorce Cui Jinzhi?”

Li Shu glanced sideways at her, and rather than answer directly, turned the question back on her. “Hearing you speak that way, do you still have feelings for him?”

The young girl’s secret had been laid bare just like that. Anle faltered.

Of course she did. That was Cui Jinzhi. There was no need to fumble for words to describe him — he had simply always been extraordinary.

Like the free wind through the forest — unrestrained and graceful. Like the pine on the mountaintop — tall and upright. Like the moon at the edge of the sky — remote and luminous. When he smiled, it was as though the finest romance of the world had been distilled into a single expression.

Anle stood lost in thought, thinking of Cui Jinzhi, and sank for a moment into silence. Reading her face, Li Shu knew that her feelings had not yet died.

If this continued, the next princess to seek a divorce would be Anle, and the next princess to remarry would be Anle as well.

Li Shu rubbed her fingertips together. She had no wish to watch Anle walk down a road to ruin. She asked an apparently disconnected question, quite out of nowhere: “If Yang Fang were to take a mistress, what would you do?”

Anle’s thoughts leaped away from Cui Jinzhi at once. Her almond eyes went wide with outrage. “He would not dare!”

If Yang Fang had the audacity to do such a thing, she would… she would… she would go straight to the palace and find her Imperial Father and Mother and have them flay him alive!

To say nothing of a mistress — if he so much as laughed and joked with another woman, Anle would make a scene on the spot.

Not that he had ever done such a thing in all these years, of course.

“Why do you suddenly ask that?”

Anle’s every alarm bell was ringing. “Have you discovered something about him? Would he truly dare to go behind my back?”

The news hit her like a blow to the head. If he truly had feelings for someone else… how could he possibly have feelings for someone else? Had he not always been devoted to her?

To be cherished, to be followed, to be cared for, to be held in someone’s palm — this was simply the natural order of things. She had been born to it. Yet Anle had never once considered the possibility: that anyone, including her parents, her elder brothers, and Yang Fang, could walk away from her.

The thought sent a wave of panic through her heart, which swiftly curdled into fury. Anle seethed with indignation, as though something was lodged in her chest — unable to rise, unable to fall.

She flung her sleeve. “I am going to find him right now!”

He would dare to keep a mistress, would he!

Anle charged off toward the front courtyard at full speed.

Li Shu was absolutely dumbstruck.

She had only meant to steer the conversation toward the matter of Cui Jinzhi’s mistress, so that Anle would lose all illusions about him and be content to live out her days properly with Yang Fang.

She had not counted on Anle’s head being entirely full of hair ornaments and absolutely nothing of use.

Li Shu did not know whether to laugh or cry. She sent her maidservant running after Anle, and just barely managed to intercept her at the edge of the ornamental lake in the front courtyard before any mishap could occur.

By the time Li Shu hurried over, she could see that Anle’s eyes had gone faintly red — whether from rage or wounded feelings, it was impossible to say — and she was taking her temper out on the maidservant who had blocked her way.

Li Shu raised her hand to dismiss the maidservant. She had rushed and was slightly breathless, and her patience was wearing thin as well. “I never said Yang Fang had taken a mistress. What are you running off for? Keep this up and I will have the guards throw you out of my mansion!”

Anle was half a head shorter than Li Shu, and Li Shu had a cold, severe countenance — when she scolded someone in anger, she was formidably imposing.

Anle had just been dressed down by Li Shu, and wore an expression of anger she did not quite dare to vent. “Just now you clearly said he had a mistress.”

“I said ‘if’!” Li Shu’s impatience showed. “Next time someone is speaking to you, do not miss the connecting words.”

Li Shu could have rolled her eyes. She had absolutely no patience for dealing with dim-witted people.

Anle talked back in protest. “You are the one who did not make yourself clear!”

Li Shu could not be bothered to argue. She waved her hand, walked into the pavilion, and leaned against the balustrade to sit. Anle followed her in and sat down nearby.

A cool breeze came off the lake. Li Shu drew her cape tighter, then turned to look at Anle from the side. Her eyes had a quality of seeing straight through to the heart, and they looked down faintly at Anle’s unworldly face.

“You nearly flew into a rage just at the mention of the word ‘mistress.’ Then you should know that Cui Jinzhi has kept a mistress for three years.”

Anle froze on the spot, her almond eyes going perfectly round.

How was that possible?

Seeing her expression lock, Li Shu curved her lips in a sardonic smile. “You have been in love with Cui Jinzhi for so many years — do you truly know what manner of man he is? What you love: is it actually him, or only a phantom you have constructed in your own mind? You have always said Yang Fang cannot compare to Cui Jinzhi. But in my eyes, he is at least ten thousand times better than Cui Jinzhi when it comes to matters of the heart.”

“Anle, all these years you have resented and envied me, and I have never been able to understand it. What is it about me that is worth your envy?”

Wind and rain swept down on her without ceasing, yet not a drop ever fell on Anle — for there had always been someone to shield her from every gust and every storm. She stood dry and clean, and pointed at Li Shu, who had been struggling in the rain until she was covered in mud, and said: “The patterns of mud on her are rather pretty. I want some too.”

It was nothing short of absurd.

Anle stood there in silence, too shaken to speak. This news had come so suddenly that she could not collect herself.

Was she not supposed to be the most powerful one? The one who could have anything she desired? Anle had always assumed Li Shu was the happiest woman in the world — she never imagined that even Li Shu had things beyond her power to change.

It was as though she was only now truly seeing the pallor of Li Shu’s face, and the thinness of her shoulders.

She had detested her for so long that in her mind, Li Shu had long since been transformed into some invincible monster, armored against all attacks.

It turned out that when the armor was stripped away, even a war goddess was nothing but an ordinary person covered in wounds.